The Power to Create Wealth: A Gift From God

And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is to this day. (Deuteronomy 8:18)

The Hebrew word for “remember,” zakar, means to mark, to recall, to call to mind, even to set as a memorial. It is an intentional act. It is keeping something at the front of the mind and not letting it get lost in a multitude of thoughts. In this case, what we are to remember is foundational to keeping the correct attitude and orientation toward God in the matter of wealth. There are many who have ended up in disaster and made a complete wreck of their lives because they have forgotten what Moses commanded the people of God to remember.

So what is it that we are to keep at the forefront of our thoughts? “Remember the LORD your God!” The Hebrew is most emphatic, “for it is He who gives you the power to get wealth.” This is the polar opposite, and the corrective to, the attitude God wants His people to avoid at all costs:

Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statues which I command you today, lest — when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; and fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end — then you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.” (Deuteronomy 8:11-17)

True wealth does not come by our own power and ability. It is a gift that comes from God to His people.

God’s Way of Multiplication

Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the LORD blessed him. The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous. (Genesis 26:12-13)

Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God…

Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks…

The LORD will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you…

And the LORD will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, n the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The LORD will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. (Deuteronomy 28:1-2, 4, 8, 11-12)

Honor the LORD with your possessions,
  And with the firstfruits of all your increase;
So your barns will be filled with plenty
  And your vats will overflow with new wine.

(Proverbs 3:9.10)

The blessing of the Lord makes one rich,
And He adds no sorrow with it.

(Proverbs 10:22)

“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
  That there may be food in My house,
And try Me now in this,” says the LORD of Hosts,
“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
  And pour out such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it.
  And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes,
So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground,
  Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,”
Says the Lord of Hosts;
  “And all nations will call you blessed,
For you will be a delightful land,
  Says the LORD of Hosts.

(Malachi 3:10-12)

But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the Word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. (Matthew 13:23)

So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife, or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time — houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions — and in the age to come, eternal life. (Mark 10:29-30)

Give and it shall be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. (Luke 6:38)

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. (John 15:7-8)

But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all thins, may have an abundance for every good work … Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness. (2 Corinthians 9:6-8, 10).

Let him who is taught in the word share in all good things with him who teachers. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. (Galatians 6:6-8)

Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only. For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account … And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:15-17, 19)

Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.(3 John 2)

God has many ways of multiplying us in every good thing. This includes material things as well as spiritual.

• Obeying Him and receiving His blessing will bring increase and multiplication.
• Honoring Him with our possessions and increase will bring even more increase and abundance.
• God honors the tithe with more than enough increase, and He will rebuke the devourer for out sakes.
• Receiving the Word of God and letting take deep root in us brings increase. It is the increase that comes by faith, for faith pleases God and comes by receiving His Word (Romans 10:17).
• Giving for the sake of Jesus and the Gospel brings hundredfold increase now in this life. This includes houses and lands as well as spiritual blessing. This promise of multiplication is so embarrassing for some Christians, they feel that must explain it away.
• What we give will be given back to us in greater measure, according to the measure with which we have given. What we measure out with our little hand, God measures out with His big hand.
• Abide in Jesus and letting His Word abide in us brings much fruit as we ask in His name. This glorifies God.
• When we give bountifully, we reap bountifully, and God supplies more than we need so we have abundance for every good work. So the circle of giving keeps increasing and multiplying.
• When we sow to the Spirit, sharing in the ministry of the Gospel, we reap a harvest of things that pertain to everlasting life. What a mighty multiplication that is.
• Paul uses the language of accounting — giving and receiving — to talk about the abundance of harvest that comes to those who give into God’s kingdom.
• The multiplication of prosperity has very much to do with the prosperity of our souls—obedience to God, honoring Him with our possession, abiding in Jesus and receiving His Word, and the willingness of our giving.

Want to experience the joy of God’s multiplication in your life? How is your soul prospering?

The Multiplication of God

Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” … And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” (Genesis 1:20, 22)

Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind; cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind; and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:24-25)

Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living that moves on the earth. (Genesis 1:28)

And God said, “See, I have given your every herb that yields seed which is on the face of the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. (Genesis 1:29)

While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease. (Genesis 8:22)

• God’s plan is for multiplication and abundance, for the earth to be filled with His bounty.
• God’s plan is to multiply and fill the earth with His dominion. He will do this through His people, who are created in His image.
• God’s plan for multiplication is through fruitfulness: each fruit bears the seed for more fruit; each harvest bears the seed for an even bigger harvest.
• The principle of seedtime and harvest will continue for as long as the earth remains.
• The principle of seedtime and harvest is that each seed shall reproduce according to its kind. That is, the kind of seed you sow is the kind of harvest you will reap.
• There is a divine order: First comes the seedtime, then comes the harvest. In between is a period of time. It may be short, it may be long. We may not always understand the timing, but each seed knows its own time.
• The harvest is much greater than the seed that is sown. One seed brings many more seeds.
• God intends for His people to enjoy the fruits of the harvest.

Are you ready for the multiplication of God in your life?

Diligence and Blessing

He shall be like a tree
Plant by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in is season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.

(Psalm 1:3)

This, of course, is speaking of the one who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, stand in the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of the mocker, but who delights in the instruction of the LORD and continually meditates on it. Whatever he does shall prosper.

In Deuteronomy 28, describing the blessings of keeping covenant with Yahweh, God puts it this way:

Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today … The LORD will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you. (Deuteronomy 28:1, 8)

This is a wonderful promise of prosperity. It belongs to Christians under the New Covenant as much as it belonged to Israel under the Old, for the New Covenant is called a better covenant, based upon better promises (Hebrews 8:6). It will not grant less than the Old Covenant, but more.

But these wonderful covenant promises are not all necessarily automatic, they must be appropriated. All Christians have these promises from God, but not all have laid claim to them and experienced the manifestation in their lives.

How do we lay hold of these promises? The answer, of course, is by faith. Faith is believing the promises of God. But it is not enough simply to believe, we must also speak and act in accordance with that faith and those promises. For it is the nature of faith to act. That is why James says that “faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17). Paul said that faith works, or expresses itself through love.

Those who walk in the counsel of the ungodly, stand in the path of sinners and sit in the seat of the scornful are not the crowd who are going to be diligent in the things that bring true prosperity. They may connive and cheat and see some short-term gains, but these will quickly evaporate. And they certainly do not exercise faith working through love.

So the promise of God is that there is prosperity for everyone who delights in His Word and obeys His commands. He will command the blessing on all to which you set your hand. But notice, in the following verses, that diligence is part of His instruction to us.

He who has a slack hand becomes poor,
But the hand of the diligent makes rich. (Proverbs 10:4)

The hand of the diligent will rule,
But the lazy man will be put to forced labor. (Proverbs 12:24)

The lazy man does not roast what he took in hunting,
But diligence is man’s precious possession. (Proverbs 12:27)

The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing;
But the soul of the diligent shall be made rich. (Proverbs 13:4)

The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty,
But those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty. (Proverbs 21:5)

Do you see a man who excels in his work?
He will stand before kings;
He will not stand before unknown men. (Proverbs 22:29)

Be diligent to know the state of your flocks,
And attend to your herds;
For riches are not forever,
Nor does a crown endure to all generations. (Proverbs 27:23-24)

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might. (Ecclesiastes 9:10)

The Hebrew word translated as “diligent” generally means to be incisive or sharp. We might say “on the ball.” It is active, it is timely, it is decisive. It is quick to act, but not without due consideration, to take care of the things that ought to be taken care of. Another word means to be skillful, to excel. Such excellence requires that one be ready and steady in their effort. The word for “diligent” in Proverbs 27:23 is actually the word for “know” used twice, reflecting a Hebrew idiom for emphatic action. The idea in this verse is to do all you can to keep up with what’s going on in your affairs, or your prosperity can easily slip away.

The promise of God does not mean that we can let diligence go by the wayside. On the other hand, we should not put our trust in diligence. Rather, the promise of God is the assurance that, if we will be diligent we will be successful and prosperous in whatever we do. So have faith in the promise and in faith bring forth diligence.